Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in various game genres such as
strategy, adventure, and role-playing. Though it is widely used, there are
still many issues that have yet to be addressed. Among these issues are the
need for detection and handling of changes in the game environment, as well as
the ability to generate an adaptive strategy. These issues in particular became
the motivation for the development of this research. It focuses on the genre of
role-playing games (RPG) and aims to improve the design and implementation of
non-player characters (NPC) through the use of decision trees with node grading
and adjustment. An RPG system was developed to implement agent NPCs capable of
performing plan reformulation and situational reassessment.

Game engines are specialized middleware which facilitate rapid game
development. Until now they have been highly optimized to extract maximum
performance from single processor hardware. In the last couple of years
improvements in single processor hardware have approached physical limits and
performance gains have slowed to become incremental. As a consequence,
improvements in game engine performance have also become incremental.
Currently, hardware manufacturers are shifting to dual and multi-core processor
architectures, and the latest game consoles also feature multiple processors.
This presents a challenge to game engine developers because of the
unfamiliarity and complexity of concurrent programming. The next generation of
game engines must address the issues of concurrency if they are to take
advantage of the new hardware. This paper discusses the issues, approaches, and
tradeoffs that need to be considered in the design of a multi-threaded game
engine.

In the last five years the popularity of Massively Multi-player Online Games
(MMOGs) has exploded. Unfortunately, the demand has far outweighed the
resources developers can provide. Many MMOGs are suffering from scalability
issues, resulting in sharding, down time, and server crashes. To solve these
problems, the research community is investigating peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay
networks to support MMOGs, as P2P networks are theoretically and practically
scalable. The majority of analysis of P2P gaming architectures has been
qualitative, making it difficult to understand the strengths and weaknesses of
each system. This is partially due to the lack of appropriate simulation tools.
To address this problem we have developed an application layer network game
simulator -- NGS -- for modelling network game architectures. NGS includes
mechanisms to collect quantitative metrics, which may then be used to perform
comparisons with other architectures. NGS is flexible enough to model
Client/Server, Region based, Neighbour based, and hybrid architectures. It is
extensible and modular, and will enable the research community to evaluate the
benefits and weaknesses of existing and new network gaming architectures.
Results demonstrating the extensibility and performance of NGS, and comparisons
of the performance of several different architectures are included.

Cricket is a unique sport and is played globally across 17 countries
including England, Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka, South-Africa,
New-Zealand, Bangladesh, and West Indies. Cricket is the most popular sport in
the world after soccer. Boundary situation in a cricket game occurs when a
fielder (cricket player) is very close to the boundary line with the cricket
ball or he touches the boundary line while chasing the ball. Detection of the
boundary situation in a cricket game is highly time-consuming and very
difficult. Conventional approaches using the video replays for detecting the
boundary whenever the player touches the boundary line with the ball is very
difficult, and gives inaccurate results in complex situations. Accuracy is
extremely critical for the cricket game since one team may loose if an
incorrect decision is made, and this will affect the overall score of the team.
Also, this may affect the performance of the team, and the morale of the
players. In this research, a computer vision-based system using a robust
algorithm is proposed to resolve the boundary situation automatically in near
real time.

Similarities and differences between "learn through play" and "edutainment"

The idea of integrating education and entertainment can be widely observed
over the last few decades. Recently, two commonly known terms when referring to
combining learning and entertainment are "learn through play" and
"edutainment". The objective of this paper is to present an investigation into
the similarities and differences of these two terms. This includes definitions,
applications, and discussions from different point of views. The results of the
study found that "learn through play" and "edutainment" are important areas
that both use entertainment activity for learning. Learn through play is a much
broader term in fun activity while edutainment relies heavily on technology,
especially computer games. They are effective teaching strategy both inside and
outside school. This paper also shows their success so far and could provide
some guidelines in future research in this field.

Karaoke Television [KTV] denotes a stereo sound system equipped with a
screen, which plays the melody of a song. The lyrics scroll over appropriate
images designed to provide the signer with an idea of the song's context. KTV
clubs provide specially designed and fitted-out sound-proofed rooms which
patrons can use to entertain themselves and their friends in privacy with the
added comforts of room service.

The aim of this article is first to present V.E.Ga.S., a tool which intend
to classify video games, study their nature and to corroborate hypothesis by a
pragmatic approach. It consists in studying a significant number of video games
in order to index their composition of elementary "game bricks". Basing our
study on this bricks and crossing them, we try to classify and study video
games. In a second time, this paper presents the classification deduced from
the results of V.E.Ga.S.

Time in computer games is not singular. Time in the game world may progress
at a different rate to the real world time of the player. Game time may be
non-linear, as previous saved games or checkpoints are reloaded. This paper
presents a model aimed at understanding time in relation to the play of
computer games. Various ways of looking at time in computer games are
presented, including from the point of view of the player, game progress and
chronological game world time. Both linear and non-linear representations of
time are included in the model, as is the mapping between the views.

The Multiplayer Online Game (MOG) becomes more popular than any other types
of computer games for its collaboration, communication and interaction ability.
However, compared with the ordinary human communication, the MOG still has many
limitations, especially in communication using facial expressions. Although
detailed facial animation has already been achieved in a number of MOGs,
players have to use text commands to control avatars expressions. In this
paper, we briefly review the state of the art in facial expression recognition
and propose an automatic expression recognition system that can be integrated
into a MOG to control the avatar's facial expressions. We evaluate and improve
a number of algorithms to meet the specific requirements of such a system and
propose an efficient implementation. In particular, our proposed system uses
fixed and less facial landmarks to reduce the computational load with little
degradation of the recognition performance.

It appears that it is a well-accepted assumption that interactivity will
improve the entertainment and/or learning value of a media. This paper reviews
various studies exploring the role of interactivity and reports on a study
conducted to see whether a novice could learn some basic skills on how to be a
customs officer from watching a game demonstration compared to being an active
participant in the same game. The study suggests that basic knowledge about a
domain may be best gained passively, but that knowledge about how to behave and
what questions to ask in that domain are best gained through active
involvement. Intuitively the findings make sense, and provide some guidance on
when interactivity is actually important.

We reflect upon a novel set of pedagogical methods to innovate a
mixed-reality Location-Based-Game (LBG). Undergraduate students in two 2nd and
3rd year IT subjects designed, specified and coded a Battleship LBG. This
required them to consider physical and cognitive play experiences in figural
and physical design spaces and address emergent properties of ubiquitous
contexts. Our methods reconciled physical methods and enacted knowledge with
traditional systematized design and development processes. We iteratively,
integrated tangible and conceptual activities (e.g. bodystorming, prototyping
of different fidelities, game concept abstraction, agile UP). We suggest these,
differentially, supported students use of indexical resources and the
assimilation of their embodied knowledge into design.

Role Playing Games (RPGs) is a popular game form. RPGs have been translated
into all media formats, and are also a rare example of functioning interactive
narratives. Despite the popularity of these games, especially within computer
games, and the possibility that experiences from RPGs could be used in
designing interactive storytelling systems for next generation interactive
entertainment systems, there have been very few academic studies focused on
cross-platform studies of role playing games. In this paper, the results of a
comparative analysis of pen and paper RPGs and computer RPGs, using an
information systems perspective coupled with games analysis, is presented. The
differences of the two game forms revolve around the different media formats
and the limitations these impose and the options they provide. The formation of
the collaborative story is a core feature of these games. While the formation
of the storyline in multiplayer RPGs are complex, it appears that information
systems modeling of multiplayer RPG story and control processes enables
quantifiable modeling of an interactive storytelling systems.

During play, players of video games intentionally change their avatars,
altering how the avatar looks, behaves, or can be manipulated. This process is
integral to gameplay, forming an important component both of successful and
enjoyable play. We present an activity theoretic analysis of qualitative data
from players to provide a grounded description of avatar transformation in four
popular games. The resulting discussion aids understanding of this component of
gameplay, and helps validate an under-used theoretical and practical approach
to the study of video games.

As the quest for designing and developing exciting and engaging computer
games continues, one must cast a thought towards what it is that makes such
entertainment engaging, or indeed, disengaging. One might be of the mind that
an interesting and captivating computer game would be one that evoked a high
level of thought activity and concentration. On the other hand, it could be
argued that if the player of a game is bombarded with instructions,
information, tasks and decisions, the result is a confusing, stressful and
generally unpleasant experience. To avoid giving our gaming audiences mind
indigestion, some sort of strategy must be employed to facilitate an acceptable
supply of cognitive stimulation. This article uses cognitive load theory to
explore and discuss a number of considerations and possible tactics in
presenting and organising complexity in a computer game.

Proximity-based chat in a first person shooter: using a novel voice
communication system for online play

Voice communication between players can have many benefits relative to
text-based communication for game play and social experience in fast-paced
multiplayer online games. However, previous research has highlighted some
problems with existing implementations of voice-over-IP in online games and
suggested the need to carefully design voice communication systems if they are
to positively contribute to the game play and social experience of online
multiplayer games. In this paper we present the results of a field trial of the
"Immersive Communication Environment", a novel voice-over-IP system designed to
support player communication in online games by simulating in the game world
the way utterances travel through air in the physical world. We found that the
proximity-based constraints imposed by this voice communication system created
some advantage for players in terms of their game play and their experience of
the game as a social event. The findings suggest that players benefit from
voice communications systems that make socially salient information available
to them according to interactional affordances and constraints that are
sensibly designed and well understood.

In this paper we argue that the mobile phone must be considered both in
terms of telephone functionality, and as an emergent entertainment media
interface. As services based upon telecommunications -- mobile telephony, the
internet, video-on-demand, personal video recorders (PVRs), interactive
television (iTV) -- become progressively experienced as everyday media content,
the environments of information and communication merge. We suggest that the
mobile phone is enabling new ways of engaging with media content, and new ways
of negotiating and communicating within both actual and virtual environments.
In particular we consider the specificities of the mobile phone interface, and
then turn to one of the most interesting and emerging areas of mobile
phone-enabled entertainment -- location-based and multiplayer games.

An interaction framework for scenario-based three dimensional environments

Although popular and engaging, three dimensional environments are rarely
deployed to depict strong narratives involving complex characters engaged in
reasoning. The design of three dimensional environments rich in narrative and
character depth can be facilitated with a detailed representation of
interactions between characters. However, the representation of interaction in
current 3D development environments such as game engines is quite basic. This
work advances a scheme for representing interactions that integrates a
representation of semantics from linguistics called FrameNet with
conceptualizations of drama and narrative by Georges Polti and Joseph Campbell.
The resulting interaction frame facilitates the design of 3D environments by
providing designers rich, yet standard elements that include spatial and
temporal data, with which to represent complex interactions in 3D environments.
This has application for the authoring of dynamically generated interactive
narrative environments.